


Assigned Monster

by LetoaSai



Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Monsters Inc. Fusion, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Protective monsters, Scaring, monsters have jobs too, scared kids
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-26
Updated: 2020-06-26
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:20:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24924544
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LetoaSai/pseuds/LetoaSai
Summary: Squall didn't do the 'scaring children' thing. He was too frightening for that. When he and Cloud get asked to temp as monsters under the bed for a set of twins, they don't exactly get to say no.
Relationships: Cloud/Leon (Kingdom Hearts), Leon (Kingdom Hearts)/Squall Leonhart/Cloud Strife
Comments: 29
Kudos: 134





	Assigned Monster

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or Any Final Fantasy. 
> 
> I found this prompt and loved it.  
> I don't know where it was originally posted but the prompt was written out by Kittenwiskers. I'll post a link to the thread at the end.

“Please. Please. Please! Pleasepleaseplease!” 

“Rinoa!” Squall snapped, jaws clicking almost painfully. “Enough! No! I am not one of your creepy crawlies.” 

“Please Squall! I’m desperate! Just for a week! Five days!” she corrected quickly when she saw his expression. 

Rinoa ran the children department of Monsters Incorporated. She assigned monsters to children, the monster under the bed program had gone over big decades ago. Children were a good source of energy. Happy, sad, scared, it didn’t matter. There were day programs and night programs and the energy fed the city. 

“Please! Just take a look! It shouldn’t be hard!” 

“If that was the case then you should have dozens of other monsters that would deal with it and leave me be. My answer is no. I don’t do children.” 

Rinoa’s sky blue wings flapped in frustration and her eyes seemed to grow a size larger, her pupils huge. “Just stop and listen. Please. I need someone on this. I have other problems.” 

“Bother your employees, not your friends, i don’t work for you.” 

She hissed, patience running thin. She slapped the folder she held against his chest. “They’re twins. They’re four years old. I’ve sent twenty-three monsters. _Twenty-three!_ They all come back and say they can’t do it. Every type and class of monster that has ever come across my desk have all been sent at least briefly and it all ends in failure. Moving these kids to the day shift doesn't work either. They don’t laugh. Don’t yell. Scaring is our best bet. I’ve tried everything, everything except..” 

“Except someone actually terrifying.” Squall cut his eyes at her. “First you try to pass this shit off onto me, now you’re telling me it’s a double?” 

“Take Cloud.” She shrugged, not seeing the problem. 

Squall blinked. “Cloud could make a hardened soldier piss their pants and you want him to go scare some babies?” 

“Desperate.” she repeated. “Look, just go, please? As a favor to me. It’ll only be for a couple of days while i look for others more suitable.” 

“You’ll owe me Rinoa.” Squall snarled, truly irritated. His hair was suddenly covered in a thing layer of ice from his plummeting mood and his claws ached to run through something. “Big.” 

“I will!” she cheered. “Thank you Squall! Thank Cloud too.” 

“Oh no. You’ll owe him too. He’ll want more than a thank you.” 

She winced but nodded. It had been her idea after all. Whatever they ended up asking for, she’d have to deliver. 

Squall growled again, feeling the tickle in the back of his throat. He was unhappy but he'd known her for far too long to truly turn down one of her requests when he could tell she was actually as desperate as she claimed to be.

What could bury them both was the fact that she dragged Cloud into it. He wasn't going to be happy either, but he'd go simply because Squall was. He would complain the entire time but he would go.

Children were not their niche. The two of them were usually only pulled out for last resort situations and always for adults. They did not scare children. They did not have anything to do with children.

Squall took off feeling the ice crunch beneath his feet. He was obviously in a bad mood and Cloud would see it coming a mile away. His grim expression might not have been entirely out of the norm but the folder he carried would tell Cloud all he needed to know. He been talked to something again.

“No.” Cloud said the second he saw him. He was wrapped in a cloak of darkness made from his own body. “Absolutely not. You can't keep letting her pull this shit on you.” 

He decided to just go for it, there was no sense dragging it out. 

“Lucky than my love, it's not just me she's dragging into it.”

Cloud looked mildly confused for only a moment before his brows drew together and he growled himself. It was the very sound that struck terror into grown men. Squall though. he loved it. “No.” he repeated. “Pulling you into her crap is bad enough but I'm not going. No damn way.” 

Squall clucked his tongue, and hummed. “I don't believe you. I don't think you'll have any better luck avoiding this than I did.” 

He took a seat, opening up the file and frowning. Case number 358-2. Sora and Roxas Keyholder. They were only four years old, how hard was it to scare a couple of children? They were little more than toddlers. What kind of children could handle almost two dozen monsters crawling around their room on different nights of the week. 

Honestly, humans were some of the scariest creatures in existence. 

Inside the case file was a single picture of these two small boys, their names written over the correct twin. Both of them with dark bags under their eyes and seemed to be staring at nothing in particular. It was obvious they hadn't been sleeping. If the monsters were proving to be ineffective then there was more to the story then he'd been told. 

When Cloud looked over his shoulder he knew he'd gained his partners attention or at the very least his curiosity.

“Humans start out cute enough,” Cloud commented. “Honestly I don't know what happens to them after that stage.”

“Not our problem.” Squall agreed. “ I know you're going to whine but Rinoa says it's only for a few days. How hard could it be?”

Cloud grunted, eyes scanning the file. “Evidently extremely hard. They're even listed as a problem case. Regardless, problem case or not sending us is still overkill.”

“Maybe they just need us to break the ice. Someone else can take over later.”

Cloud tsked, “You're almost adorable when you're optimistic.”

“Bite me.” 

“I’d love to.” 

Squall heaved a sigh. “Their bedtime is eight o’clock. We'll beat them there.” 

“I never agreed to this.” 

“I know. I skipped your token protest and went right to you agreeing to go with me. Besides, it's two children. Two beds. Make yourself useful my love.” 

“You're an ice fiend." Cloud grumbled. 

“I know, it's the reason you fell for me in the first place.”

“Well you're not wrong.”

it wasn't their idea of a good time or even a romantic evening spent together. It was just work and not even their work. It was a favor and both doubted they would ever get anything in return of equal weight to this humiliating assignment.

They made it there in time, hearing just enough in the house to know that the boys were finishing up their bath time. 

They distinctly heard the boys call the woman with them Miss Flora. So she clearly wasn't their mother. They thought for half a moment that perhaps she was some kind of nanny but that idea was thrown out at the small state of the boys shared room. 

The toys were limited which they assumed was strange for boys their age. There was also only one twin size bed the pair evidently shared. 

“Dibs on the closet.” Cloud mumbled, already heading for it. He hated crawling under beds.

“Ass.” Squall shook his head, but slid under the bed anyway. However temporary, however forced, for the next few days they were these boys monsters. 

Squall was almost too big to fit but he managed. He could imagine Cloud sitting bored in the closet not even bothering to peer outside into the room. Really though, he'd have to do something nice for his partner since he did actually come with him. He probably could have handled boys so young on his own but why suffer alone. 

A few minutes later a the shortish, older woman brought the boys into the room. She spoke kindly to them and tucked them in. The boys bid her goodnight but it was more polite than anything else. 

It was hard to imagine boys with such good manners potentially ruining the careers of so many monsters. Miss Flora pulled out a book, a short little thing and read the boys a story before petting them on the head and walking out of the room. 

Squall was entirely too grateful that it was a short story. The night was already taking too long and it had barely begun. He should have sat with Cloud in the closet. 

The twins curled up together both of them wishing the other good night. They didn't talk or think of ways to try to stay up longer. They didn't sneak out of bed or try to get into mischief. They just held onto each other and close their eyes. 

It was odd and not a mysterious kind of odd but more alarming. Squall waited, listening to the clock tick for several minutes before deciding to do anything. He hadn't exactly given what he was going to do much thought. They were just children, babies really. They didn't need to be traumatized for life. That wasn't the point of the scare program. He needed to think of something that would scare them but that wouldn't do any real harm. Monsters never hurt children. 

Squall breathed out slowly, ice covering the floor beneath him, just a thin layer. It crawled up the bed posts and up the wall creating a chill in the air. Only once he pounded his fist against the floor, the noise directly beneath the boys. He heard the gasps but nothing else. 

The night light flickered off and on several times before finally dying. That was Clouds doing. If Squall was the chill then Cloud was the darkness. They'd always thought they made a pretty pair because of it. A thud came from the closet and he could perfectly imagine it being Cloud's head thunking back on the wall out of boredom.

The entire thing felt almost mundane to them but surely the boys must have been frightened? Squall reached out and tugged on the blanket, it earned him another quiet sound but that was all. He could feel the little boys clinging to their comforter and holding it tightly around them as if it would protect them. At the moment, things seemed to be going pretty standard. Squall couldn't imagine why Rinoa was having such a hard time with these kids. 

It went on for at least an hour both monsters going back and forth between making noises. They knew the children weren't asleep, rather they seemed almost hyper aware of the fact that they weren't alone in their room. Perhaps not the best reactions ever but certainly not nothing either.

Finally after a far too long stretch of silence one of the boys spoke. “We're not afraid of you.” 

“Not afraid.” the second one echoed. 

It was a curious reaction for sure. 

Both monsters could honestly say they weren't really trying. The two of them _actually_ trying would have been far too much. It left them in some kind of pathetic limbo of making noises and knocking sounds. Squall would even occasionally shake the bed. It was almost boring. They were starting to wonder if this was just as degrading for the kids as it was for them. 

Children could have monsters hidden in their room anywhere from the ages of three to fourteen. Eventually they would outgrow it. Perhaps these boys simply outgrew it extremely young. It was something to consider but Squall still heard traces of fear in the children's tones. 

“Not afraid.” the first boy whispered again. 

“Not afraid,” his brother agreed.

“It’s okay, we're okay.” 

“We’re okay.” 

Squall frowned, starting to get the feeling that something was definitely wrong. He watched the shadows around him squirm and dance and knew Cloud was similarly concerned. 

Somewhere down below, a door slammed and the twins jumped and clung harder to each other. Voices started off quiet but one grew louder and louder. It grated both monsters nerves. Children were trying to sleep damn it. 

When they heard the slow stomping up the stairs both boys whimpered. Squall could smell their tears but what surprised him was when the pair wiggled out of bed and crawled under the bed, not just beside him, but against him. They were sniffling, their terror something he’d never seen on a child’s face as they clung to him for, what? Protection?

They were seeking protection from a monster? Up close where he could really see them had him fighting to keep his snarls to himself. The boys were covered in bruises, and one even had a fat lip. He’d never been so… angry. 

If they needed protection… “Cloud.” 

The bedroom door banged open, and with it a rough man stepped in that smelled of cheap booze and cheaper perfume. 

“The fuck are you brats! Don’t make me find you!” 

Squall glared from where he lay, the two boys clutching against his chest. The twins weren’t afraid of their assigned monsters because they already had one. They lived with a walking nightmare as a… Father? Guardian? Whatever. 

The boys whimpered again and Squall cooed, “Shh. I’ve got you.” 

Things around the room were thrown and the boys quieted their cries to try and be as silently as possible. Squall hated to think how normal this was for them.

“Come out here!” The bed was shoved forcefully and Squall made himself slide back with it, keeping the boys hidden underneath. “You really won’t like it if i have to drag you out!” 

Squall scowled and knew a threat when he heard on. “No.” he said, voice like gravel. “You won’t like it if i come out.” 

“What the..fuck..” 

The bedroom door slammed shut. The closet door left oddly open in the darkness of the room. The nightlight flicked back on and the shadows in the room came alive. Cloud’s darkness spread out like wings, the span of them taking up most of the room. The eyes glowed eerily and his horns twisted in a way that terrified most. 

“I get it.” Cloud’s voice was deceivingly low. “You frighten these children so bad that they don’t have time to fear anything else. I think i’ll give you something to fear now.” He parted his lips, rows of sharp teeth glistening even in the darkness. “You want to harm toddlers, i’ll show you harm. I’ll show you harm for eternity!” He growled, a tail appearing, knocking the man back who landed hard on the jagged ice that now made up that part of the floor. 

Bit by bit the ice turned into spikes that poked into his skin as the drunkard scrambled to his knees to get to the door. He pulled at the knob with sobs clogging up his throat. 

“You ever put a hand on these boys again. On any child,” Cloud hissed, his own nails elongated. “I’ll put my hands on you.” 

He only had to flutter his wings for the man to shriek. He dove for the door, dragging it opened and crawling out on his hands and knees, too uncoordinated to even stand again as he scurried away in a panic, smelling now of booze and piss. 

Cloud slammed the door behind him, too disgusted to watch him flee. 

Behind him Squall crawled out from under the bed, pulling the little twins with him. “There there now. It’s okay, he’s gone.” Little faces were buried against both sides of his neck. He patted their backs and Cloud hovered beside them. 

“Explains a bit.” he muttered. 

Squall tsked and stood with the boys, moving to tuck them both back into bed. They peered up at him with eyes so blue they almost glowed like Clouds. 

“Will you stay?” Sora asked softly. 

“Please?” Roxas asked weakly. 

Squall felt his resolve shatter. Who would have thought tiny humans needed monsters to protect them. “Of course we’ll stay.” 

“We’re your monsters.” Cloud agreed, not as much reluctance in his voice as Squall might have expected. 

Both boys grabbed a hold of each of them and laid back to try and sleep. There was no more scaring and both Cloud and Squall now sat on the edge of the bed. They were such little things, and so brave already. It really wouldn’t hurt for them to look after them for a while. 

The sniffles lasted a little longer but exhaustion crept in before the boys were finally sleeping soundly. 

“A week really isn’t that long.” Squall muttered, lacing his fingers with Cloud’s. 

“Could go a little longer.” Cloud shrugged, watching the twins sleep. This was an unusual case after all. They should stick around and see it through.

**Author's Note:**

> My Strifehart friday posts are still going strong. 
> 
> Link to prompt thread.
> 
> https://cheezburger.com/11674629/tumblr-monster-writing-prompt-invokes-the-feels?fbclid=IwAR0gzzeIQBlyZOcL5LFuOiSbsZ3FYLkX1W8ZTxRP8t2SifBuzZjvQMuFJ7U


End file.
